Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008

The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 was initiated with the goal of adding more improvements to the foster care and adoption

One of the ways in which the Act was able to improve the state of foster child adoption is by offering a financial incentive to the State if they are able to place a child with a biological relative, such as a child's grandparent. This incentive was a way in which foster child adoption would be able to be more common as states witnessed more and more children that still need the services of foster adoption placement.

The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 established that in order for a State to receive the Federal financial incentive for relative foster child adoption, the child must live with the relative for more than six months while receiving financial assistance from the State Government. In addition, if the child is brought in as a foster child, there has to be an intent to adopt by the relative. The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 goes on to say that in order for the State to receive Federal financial assistance for their relative placement, the State must consult with any minor above the age of 14 before the foster adoption takes place.

The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 permitted states to place siblings in a foster child adoption with their other siblings, in circumstances where the children are eligible. The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 also establishes that in instances of foster adoption, the siblings that are also placed in the household are to receive financial assistance from the State as well. For children that are eligible to be placed in the care of other siblings, the kinship guardianship assistance payments must not exceed the typical foster care maintenance payments that would be paid if the child were to remain in the care of the State-provided foster care facility home.

The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 also protected the children in which foster child adoption is to be carried out in terms of healthcare benefits. For those children that transition to foster child adoption by a relative, those minors are to remain eligible for Government-assisted healthcare coverage. Those minors that have undergone foster adoption retain access to Medicaid.

The Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 also placed a special focus on the minors that are in the foster adoption system over the age of 16. Minors over the age of 16 that have undergone foster child adoption have an emphasis placed on the education that the Government makes available to them.

The Fostering to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 offers vouchers to those minors over the age of 16 that go on to foster child adoption to continue furthering their education. Funding is now readily available which allows them to receive the additional training that these minors want and need.

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